


So...

by BlackRook



Category: Captain America (2011), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-17
Updated: 2012-09-17
Packaged: 2017-11-14 11:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/514695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackRook/pseuds/BlackRook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...Steve swallows his first response (‘Tony, it’s too much, I can’t accept it’) and his second (‘Stark, it’s crazy, we’ll kill each other in a week’) and actually thinks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So...

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Momentary Grace for the beta-reading!

“So, Cap, what do you think?” Tony asks, waving his hand at big 3-Dimensional design of renovated Stark tower. Well, not the whole tower, just 8 top floors – ‘new Avengers HQ with dorms and fun places’. Some of the premises are colored in blue and marked with little badges in the form of his shield – these are rooms and/or facilities meant for Steve’s own personal use/interest, as Tony has put it.

 Steve swallows his first response (‘Tony, it’s too much, I can’t accept it’) and his second (‘Stark, it’s crazy, we’ll kill each other in a week’) and actually thinks. Tony’s idea has some points – they need a home base, independent of SHIELD, and so on, but… Sharing a home with Tony Stark? Even as big as the Tower? Exactly the kind of idea that usually backfires.

 Ever since Fury’s first debriefing, Steve knew that working together with Tony Stark was a bad idea, and later it was only confirmed. It wasn’t even about Tony being a self-centered jerk (though he totally was), it’s just… He was Howard’s son – and he was older than Howard had been, more than ten years older than Steve himself, and still not as old as he might have been, according to the date on the calendar. In some ways Tony was so much like Howard, it was uncanny; it other ways – his complete opposite, and all this drove Steve crazy. Though maybe he was lucky it was a Stark – if he had to deal with a walking reminder of any of the Commandos, or Colonel Phillips, or – God forbid – Bucky or Peggy… At least he and Howard hadn’t been that close back then. Of course, he respected man’s genius, and was grateful for that flight over the lines, for the shield and all other weaponry that had kept them alive – but that was it. They had been colleagues at best, not even comrades-in-arms, and certainly not friends, there hadn’t been time for that...  Steve was actually surprised to hear that Howard had been looking for him for decades. He didn’t know what Fury (or Tony) thought on the matter, but he wasn’t all that sure it had been personal for Howard – and not just about ‘Project Rebirth’ and a plane full of HYDRA weapons.

 But still, Howard was a part of his past, a past Tony unknowingly brought up with half of his gestures, intonations, etc… At least (and it was a blessing), there wasn’t any déjà-vu in the field, when Tony was suited up. The armour hid physical appearance, changed the voice and, well, Howard had never been at his side during a fight. Often on the plane above, sometimes – a voice in their ears, getting them through some tech, but never in the battle itself. So, Captain America had (almost) no problems with Iron Man; Tony Stark, though…

 Tony being a jerk didn’t help a single bit. Now, months later,  Steve knows it’s just Tony’s way of communicating with the world, and most of the time he pokes people with pointy things because he is curious to see what’s inside, not because he wants to hurt them. And even now, when Steve knows for a fact that there is no malice behind Tony’s remarks, he still wants to punch him every now and then; back then, on the Hellicarrier…  Insults he could deal with, but every other one of Tony’s wisecracks cut deep, making holes in that bubble under which Steve had shoved all his grief to be able to function. And then he went and found HYDRA weapons on board, and had to admit that Stark, with all his attitude, was right and he was wrong, wrong to trust SHIELD, to trust Fury as his CO… So Loki’s scepter had enough to build on, and it probably didn’t take that much work to make him and Stark blow up in each other faces. Still, those words shouldn’t have been said, and they were wrong.

 Steve knew he was wrong ten minutes later, when two of them were outside, trying to jump start that engine; when he watched Stark’s reaction to Fury’s announcement about Coulson; when they flew to New York to make that last (and possibly hopeless) stand. So no, he wasn’t surprised when Stark rode that rocket through the portal. It’s just… Crashing Schmidt’s plane into the ocean had been much easier than watching someone else doing the same thing. It didn’t help that there had been no way he could jump on that particular – nuclear! – grenade himself, no matter how badly he wanted it, no matter that this time he had nothing to lose and nobody to mourn him – and Stark had that pretty redhead who ran up to him once they’d stumbled in the Tower after the shawarma. Steve watched them cling to each other, and part of him wondered if Tony tried to call her from outer space, part of him was really, really envious, but the strongest feeling was still tremendous relief, relief that he didn’t have to walk up to that lady and tell her some helpless bullshit Phillips usually put in those letters.

 After everything that had happened, a couple of phrases said in the heat of the moment under influence of an alien artifact probably weren’t really important, but Steve still tried to apologize, the morning they were seeing the Asgardians off. Of course, he didn’t manage to say all he wanted to say, but the conversation went much better than Steve’d expected – in the end they agreed to blame it on Loki and forget about it, and somehow Steve left with a book Tony thought he’d like. (He did, by the way.)

 They didn’t start to get along perfectly after this – still rubbed each other the wrong way most of the time, though they hadn’t questioned each other’s worth anymore, and Steve hopes they never will. Howard’s ghost is still here more often than not, and recently Steve’s been suspecting that  said ghost clouds Tony’s perception of him as much as his own perception of Tony. They probably should just sit down and talk about the man, but Steve can’t see this happening in near future. And in this case, the only thing that can help is time. And… well, exposure. So, maybe sharing a home with Tony Stark isn’t such a crazy idea. Especially home as big as the Tower. The Avengers Tower, as the scheme says.

 “Earth to Captain America! Hey, old guy, I know you’re blown away by the magnificence, but it’s time to get back!”

 Steve surfaces from his memories and smiles. “I think all of this makes sense, Tony. I’m in.”

 “Good! And I’m totally taking you as back-up when we’re talking to assassin duo!”


End file.
